Sakhnin (Arabic: سخنين‎; Hebrew: סַחְ'נִין or סִכְנִיןSikhnin) is a city in Israel's North District. It is located in the Lower Galilee, about 23 kilometres (14 mi) east of Acre. Sakhnin was declared a city in 1995. Its population of 25,100[2] is Arab, mostly Muslim with a sizable Christian minority. Sakhnin is home to the largest population of Sufi Muslims within Israel, with approximately 80 members.

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Sakhnin is built over three hills and is located in a valley surrounded by mountains, the highest one being 602 meters high. Its rural landscape is almost entirely covered by olive and fig groves as well as oregano and sesame shrubs.

Sakhnin is situated on an ancient site, where remains from columns and cisterns have been found.[3] It was mentioned as Sogane, a town fortified in 66, by Josephus.[4] A cistern, excavated near the mosque in the old city centre, revealed pottery fragments dating from the 1st to the 5th century CE.[5]

In the Crusader era, it was known as Zecanin.[6] In 1174 it was one of the casales (villages) given to Phillipe le Rous.[7] In 1236 descendants of Phillipe le Rous confirmed the sale of the fief of Saknin.[8]

In 1596, Sakhnin appeared in Ottomantax registers as being in the Nahiya of Akka of the Liwa of Safad. It had a population of 66 households and 8 bachelors, all Muslim. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, cotton, and a water mill.[9][10]

In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Sakhnin as follows: "A large village of stone and mud, amid fine olive-groves, with a small mosque. The water supply is from a large pool about half a mile to the south-east. The inhabitants are Moslems and Christians".[13]

By 1945, Sakhnin had 2,600 inhabitants, all classified as Arabs. The total jurisdiction of the village was 70,192 dunams of land.[16] 3,622 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 29,366 dunams for cereals,[17] while 169 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[18]

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Sakhnin surrendered to Israeli forces on July 18, 1948, during Operation Dekel, but was re-captured by Arab forces shortly afterwards. It finally fell without battle during Operation Hiram, 29–31 October 1948. Many of the inhabitants fled north but some stayed and were not expelled by the Israeli soldiers.[19] The town remained under Martial Law until 1966.

In 1976, it became the site of the first Land Day marches, in which six Israeli Arabs were killed by Israeli forces during violent protests of government confiscation of 5,000 acres (20 km2) of Arab-owned land near Sakhnin. And in 1976 three more civilians were killed during clashes with the police, and in Jerusalem and the Aqsa Intifada in 2000 two men were killed.